


For the Hope

by VioletsFinch



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:28:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27269467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VioletsFinch/pseuds/VioletsFinch
Summary: Toph wanted the future he had with someone else.[The untold stories of Toph and Sokka from the second and third books]
Relationships: Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Toph Beifong/Sokka
Kudos: 39





	For the Hope

**The Library**

"I brought you something from the library," Sokka nudged Toph. He pulled a book out and handed it to her. She ran her hands over it, smirking.

"Gee, thanks, Sokka. This will be so useful to me," she said sarcastically. 

Sokka laughed. "Okay, okay. Maybe I should have presented that better. But open it. Feel the pages."

Toph cautiously flipped open the cover and ran her fingers lightly up and down the paper. Ridges formed shapes under the pads of her fingers. She raised her eyebrows. 

"It's a map of Ba Sing Se. Everything is raised, so I thought you might like it." 

No one had given her a book before. "What?"

Sokka shifted uncomfortably. "Sorry, I just-"

Toph punched him in the arm. "I love it."

And she did. She looked at it every night she could. She memorized every detail. And one day, she made a perfectly scaled sand sculpture of Ba Sing Se on the beach of Ember Island. 

**The Serpent's Pass**

Save his life from falling rocks and all he does is check on Suki. She shouldn't be surprised, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt. 

And then, in the water, thrashing in the cold water. 

Suddenly, a warm body lifting her up. 

But it wasn't him. 

She wondered why he didn't come for her. 

**The Tales of Ba Sing Se**

"Toph. Wow."  
She blushed. "Is it too much?"

"No, of course not. You look beautiful,"

He had never called her that before. 

But she didn't know he had thought that many times before. 

They stood there, smiling softly. 

"Courtesy of the Fancy Lady Day Spa, I guess," Toph responded shyly. 

"No. You always look beautiful."

She felt the vibrations beneath her feet. 

She could tell he wasn't lying. 

But his heart was beating faster. 

**The Painted Lady**

A lot of times, her friends forgot that Toph was blind. 

Toph stood awkwardly to the side. She couldn't feel the factory or the polluted water everyone kept talking about. She couldn't feel the floating wooden island next to it. And she definitely couldn't feel the boat they needed to take to get there. 

"Toph?" Sokka's voice. 

"Just give me a minute," she blew a strand of hair from her face in annoyance. 

"Here," he said. And suddenly his hand was in hers. "There's a bit of a gap before the boat, by the way." 

Toph blushed. No one else had realized. 

He helped her step out of the boat, too. And as they walked the wooden island, he gave her his arm to guide her before she even asked. 

**Sokka's Master**

"We have some material leftover," Piandao said. "Just enough for a bracelet or pendant. A lot of men will use theirs to make jewlery for their significant other. It's symbolic for a woman to wear a piece of their husband's sword. If you'd like, we can-"

"Nah," Sokka waved his hand dismissively. "I'll just give it to her as it is. She'll know what to do with it." He couldn't wait to see Toph's face when she bent space earth for the first time. 

"Ah, so you do have someone back home," Piandao commented. 

Sokka wondered why he didn't feel guilty when Toph bent it into a bracelet around her wrist. 

He wondered why it made him happier than ever. 

**The Runaway**

Hawkey flapped his wings impatiently as Sokka's pen hovered above the paper. Why was he doing this? It's not like she could read. But then again, it's not like he would have ever sent it to her if she could.

 _Toph, you're my best_ _friend_ , he wrote anyway. 

He crossed out "best friend." Something didn't feel right about it. He shook his head. What was he doing?

 _Dear Suki,_ he wrote instead. 

**The Southern Raiders**

_You didn't love her the way I did._

Katara's words ring in Sokka's head over and over again.

"What Katara said wasn't true," Toph said gently. 

"How do you know?" He snapped.

Toph sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I just- Remember I told you that I can't even remember her face? That when I picture her, I see Katara?"

Toph was silent for a moment. "You know, to me, faces don't matter. It's how someone made you feel that really matters. It's remembering that what you experienced with them was genuine and good. I mean, I don't know what you look like at all, but I still..." She trailed off. 

"You still...?" Sokka prompted.

"I still think you're alright," she blushed. 

Why did that make Sokka's heart leap?

**Sozin's Comet**

Sokka shielded Toph, covering her with his own body. 

_I can't let her go,_ he thought.

He gripped her hand as they ran across the metal.

 _I can't let her go,_ he thought. 

He watched as Suki was separated from them. He had let her go. He turned to see Toph.

 _I can't let her go,_ he thought. 

\---

A flying piece of metal was not ideal for Toph. But Sokka never forgot. His hand was always with hers. "I won't let us get separated," he promised. 

He didn't make Suki the same promise. 

She was afraid. Who wouldn't be, when the only thing that separates you between death and life is the grip of a hand?

 _Sokka's hand,_ she reminded herself. 

"I don't think Boomerang is coming back, Toph. It looks like this is the end." Tears filled her eyes. 

They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. 

Toph could only see the future she would never have. 

_Her and Sokka, embracing after the end of the war._

_Her and Sokka, wandering the palace gardens on Zuko's coronation day._

_Her and Sokka, visiting the Jasmine Dragon together, Iroh teasing them the entire time._

_Her and Sokka, holding hands for dear life. Not because they were dangling from an air ship, but because they were both what each other wanted most in the world._

"It can't be," she whispered. 

**A month after the war**

Toph witnessed Suki live the future she had thought could be hers.

Sokka and Suki embraced after the war. 

They wandered the gardens together on Zuko's coronation day.

They got tea at the Jasmine Dragon together. 

But they didn't hold hands like she and Sokka could have. 

"Why don't you and Suki hold hands?" Toph blurted out once. 

It was just the two of them, sitting by the palace pond. Sokka raised his eyebrows. 

"Where is this coming from?" He asked. 

"Sorry," Toph blushed. 

The wind swept through the trees. 

Sokka sighed. "I just haven't wanted to lately."  
"Why not?"

"I think that Suki and I realized that we both wanted something to look forward to. We needed that hope during the war. The hope of seeing each other again, the hope that one day we wouldn't have to be apart. The hope that we would survive together. But the thing is, we've survived now. And I don't regret what we had together. I never will. But when it comes down to it, the love we had wasn't what we had thought it was."

He shifted awkwardly. "We're still best friends. But we've decided that's probably all we should be for now."

"When did you decide this?" She asked cautiously. 

"She decided last week," Sokka started slowly. "I decided during Sozin's comet, when I thought I was going to have to let go of you."

She hit him in the arm. Hard.

"Hey! Ow!" Sokka exclaimed. He rubbed his arm. "Does, uh, that mean... You don't want to get tea with me?"

"No," Toph said, "That means I kind of like you, too." She grinned. 

Sokka squeezed Toph's hand.

And never let go. 


End file.
